SUDAN. - Region of central Africa, the western part of which depends politically on France (v. A.O.F.) and the eastern part of which constitutes the Anglo-Egyptian S. The latter is made up of the basin of the upper Nile and the White Nile, from the Congo to the second cataract and from the Red Sea to Darfur.
It consists of a series of monotonous plateaus, sloping gently down toward the N.; covered with dense forests or marshy in the S. (Bahr el-Ghazal), but increasingly arid as one proceeds northward and westward (Darfur, Kordofan), until they pass over into outright desert (Nubia). On the eastern side the relief becomes more pronounced, rising toward the Ethiopian plateau. Where it can benefit from the tribute of the many rivers that cross it (Gezira), the immense country (2.5 million sq km) lends itself to crops (cotton), but on the whole stock-raising prevails (cattle, sheep, goats and camels), whose products already sustain a considerable export trade. The population (7.6 million inhabitants) is made up of Arab, Hamitic and Negro peoples, fanatically Muslim. There is no lack of large inhabited centers: Omdurman (118,000 inhabitants), the old Mahdist capital, faces, at the confluence of the two Niles, Khartoum (62,000 inhabitants), the new capital. On the Red Sea is Port Sudan (50,000 inhabitants).
The Anglo-Egyptian S. is an Anglo-Egyptian condominium, in reality dominated by British interests.
Bibliography2 works
Giuseppe Caraci
EVANGELIZATION
I. Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
In 1697 the mission of Akhmim, Fungi and Ethiopia was founded by the S. Congr. of Prop. Fide under the prefect Francesco Maria da Saleme of the Reformed Minors. Sennaar in the Sudan was then in the 18th century the starting point of various missionary attempts in Ethiopia. At the beginning of the 18th century Fr. Damiano da Rivoli O. F. M., appointed in 1701 prefect of the then-erected mission of Fezzan, Bornu and Nubia, made an attempt at a mission in Nubia which failed. Further attempts likewise remained without effect.
In 1846 Propaganda erected the apostolic vicariate of Central Africa. After the resignation of the first apostolic vicar, Msgr. Annetto Casolani, originator of the mission, Fr. Massimiliano Ryllo S. J. was appointed pro-vicar in 1847, but died after his arrival in Khartoum in 1848. His successor Ignazio Knoblecher founded in 1851 the first mission among the Baria at Gondokoro, where the priest Angelo Vinco made his exploration journey among the various equatorial tribes of the White Nile (1851-52). Almost all the missionaries died shortly after their arrival in the mission, and Knoblecher in 1854. The successor pro-vicar Matteo Kirchner transferred the center of the mission to Schellal near Aswan in Egypt. The Franciscans, who took over the mission in 1861 under the pro-vicar Giovanni Reinthaler, died soon one after another. In 1867 Daniele Comboni founded the Institute of Verona for the missions of Central Africa. From 1873 he succeeded in organizing the mission, erecting stations at Berber, Delen, el-Obeid, where he created a colony of Christian negroes. Comboni, apostolic vicar from 1877, died in 1881 in Khartoum. In the same year the insurrection of the Mahdi broke out, which completely destroyed the work of the missionaries. Only after the defeat of the Mahdists by the English could Msgr. Antonio Maria Roveggio from 1900 begin the reconstruction. His successor Francesco Saverio Geyer was the principal organizer and founder of the missions among the negroes of the southern Sudan. In 1913 the name of the apostolic vicariate of Central Africa was changed to that of Khartoum (v.), from which various missions originated.
The fruit of the missionary work in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is represented by 77,893 Catholics.
Bibliography4 works
2. French Sudan
On 6 Aug. 1868, at the request of the archbishop of Algiers, later Card. Lavigerie, the apostolic prefecture of Sahara and Sudan was erected. Two expeditions of White Fathers, sent by Lavigerie to found a mission in the Sudan, did not reach their goal: in 1875 the Fathers Meneret, Paulmier and Bouchard, in 1881 the Fathers Richard, Morat and Pouplard were slaughtered in the desert. The Fathers of the Holy Spirit succeeded in penetrating into the Sudan starting from Senegal and in erecting among the Malinke and the Bambara, not yet infected by Islam, the stations of Kita and Bangassi (1888) and that of Kayes (1893); in 1901 they ceded them to the White Fathers. In the meantime the White Fathers were able to enter the Sudan, likewise starting from Senegal, and to settle among various tribes, such as the Bambara, the Mossi, the Gurunsi and the Bobo, both in the Sudan and in Upper Volta, founding missionary stations. In 1901 Sahara and Sudan, already elevated to an apostolic vicariate since 1891, was divided: the northern part, the Sahara, became the apostolic prefecture of Ghardaia, the southern part took the name of Sahara in the French Sudan. The latter vicariate was in 1921 divided into two vicariates: Bamako and Ouagadougou comprising the French Sudan, Upper Volta and French Nigeria. Further divisions and detachments followed, assigning to Upper Volta and Nigeria their own missionary districts. In this way the French Sudan, properly so called, currently comprises the following vicariates and prefectures, all entrusted to the White Fathers: Bamako, erected in 1921; Gao, erected in 1942; Kayes, erected in 1947; Nouna, erected in 1947; Ouahigouya, erected in 1947 (including also territories of Upper Volta); Sikasso, erected in 1947. The number of Catholics in all these missions is altogether 27,000 out of about 4,000,000 inhabitants. - See plate CV.
